Notes on Social Creature
Social Creature: A Novel by Tara Isabella Burton
Original notes here.
Nearly thirty and living in a rent-controlled apartment, Louise has always dreamed of becoming a writer but is perpetually too busy to put pen to paper. She scrapes by doing poorly paid freelance writing jobs online, tutoring students, and working part-time at a bar. At a party, she leaves a message advertising her tutoring services and is contacted by Lavinia, who hires her to tutor her younger sister, Cordelia. When the tutoring session is over, Lavinia does not return home all night. When she finally comes back, she takes a liking to Louise. Not wanting to disappoint her, Louise goes along with it and claims to be a writer. Lavinia takes her to gatherings with her friends, and after several parties, the two become like sisters. Louise lets everyone believe she is twenty-five. In an old bookshop, Lavinia immerses Louise in her circle of friends, introducing her as a writer. Louise takes it as a test of whether she can fit in. A guy named Beaumont exchanges a few words with her before moving on, and Louise assumes he has already seen through her. Feeling out of place, she wants to leave, but outside she runs into Rex and his best friend Hal, and she has an easy conversation with Rex. Later she learns that he is Lavinia’s ex. Lavinia says she loved him because he wrote her letters, but eventually he could not stand her excessive intensity and broke up with her.
Lavinia comes back to collect Louise, and the two dissect all the gossip about the boys at the gathering, putting Louise’s fears about fitting in to rest. They spend a wonderful time together. Lavinia’s sister has gone to Paris, so she lets Louise move into her luxurious apartment. Although Louise has to spend two hundred dollars to join the gym with her, she saves eight hundred dollars in rent, most of their outings are paid for by Lavinia, and Lavinia also buys the dresses Louise wears when they go out. But Lavinia says that she and her sister each have only one key, so Louise has no key of her own.
To keep her free place to live, Louise does not dare anger Lavinia even when she is reluctant. She can see that Lavinia’s novel is utterly worthless, but whenever she makes even the slightest criticism, Lavinia wears the same expression she had when Mimi, another close friend, tore the sleeve of her dress at the previous gathering. Louise has no choice but to tell her it is absolutely wonderful. Mimi sends a message saying how envious she is, hinting that she too once lived at Lavinia’s place. Lavinia merely explains that Mimi was moving and had stayed with her for a few weeks.
In the book, all of Louise’s friends are originally Lavinia’s friends. Through these connections, Louise finally gets her work published in several magazines. But because she constantly has to accompany Lavinia on her impulsive adventures, her life and work schedule are thrown completely into chaos. She loses one job after another, and even while living rent-free, she still cannot make ends meet. Once, when Lavinia is drunk, she asks Louise to take money from her card to tip street performers. After learning the PIN, Louise finds herself unable to stop withdrawing money from the account, telling herself that it is insurance and compensation.
The two attend the opera together. In their box, Lavinia slips a hand between her legs; Louise does not dare resist. Despite Louise’s endless compliance, Lavinia begins to suspect that she is insincere, that she is wearing a mask to please her. One night, Louise cannot get into the apartment and can only wait for her to return. When Lavinia finally comes back, she uses her drunkenness to verbally humiliate Louise, telling a neighbor, “This person really thinks she lives here.” Louise still swallows it, repeatedly telling her that she loves her. The next day, Lavinia acts as though nothing happened.
In July, the two go to another gathering together. In the bathroom, Lavinia loses her temper again. Louise knows she has no way out. To keep her home, she lies and says she has fallen in love with Lavinia. Lavinia is not a lesbian, but knowing that someone loves her calms her down. She uses Louise’s phone as a mirror while touching up her makeup, but sees a text from Rex flash across the screen, saying that he had a wonderful time on their last date and would love to do it again. Without even looking up, Lavinia tells Louise to move out and throws down the key. She then grabs her phone, declaring she has to tell everyone. She starts typing out a post revealing that her roommate stole four thousand dollars from her, slept with her ex-boyfriend, and, at the gathering, tried to have sex with her in the bathroom! Furious, Louise tries to stop Lavinia. The two fight over the phone, and soon the struggle turns physical. In the chaos, Louise repeatedly slams Lavinia’s head against the sink. She dies there, at the age of twenty-three.
Louise calms herself down, cleans up the blood, and carries Lavinia outside as though she were still alive. They return home. After all, in the dead of night in New York, a little blood or hauling an “unconscious” friend barely raises an eyebrow. Lavinia’s phone keeps ringing. To prolong the appearance that she is still alive, Louise pretends to be Lavinia and answers it, picking up Mimi, who is still at the party and already drunk enough to collapse. Mimi always fawns over Lavinia like a loyal dog. Louise herself has to pretend she has no key and nowhere to go, so she goes to see Rex. Rex confesses his love for her, invites her back to his place, and the two have sex. Louise thinks that if Lavinia had not died, tonight’s events would still have happened anyway, and then her death would have been meaningless.
She returns and puts Lavinia’s body into an antique suitcase in the apartment. She has to break some bones to make the body fit. She will never forget the sensation of breaking human bones. That night she drives to a park and waits until no one is around. She takes out the suitcase, opens it by the river to look at Lavinia one last time, and then sinks it into the water.
On Facebook, she updates Lavinia’s life every day, pretending that she is determined to start a new life after a heartbreak. She acquires a group of sunny, positive new friends, constantly attends different events around upstate New York, and even says that she has given up drinking. Near New York University, she buys a fake passport from a shady shop. It bears the identity of a red-haired woman. On one occasion, she also calls Lavinia’s boyfriend pretending to be her and leaves a message saying that she can no longer see him, but still loves them and wishes them well. She replies to Lavinia’s Facebook messages, including enthusiastically telling Mimi that they should go out together one day, though she always claims they can never find the time. She also replies to Lavinia’s parents’ emails and to her sister’s emails. She continues to make regular withdrawals from Lavinia’s card, but because of her extravagant lifestyle, she still can barely balance the books.
One time, she is drinking at a bar with Lavinia’s makeup on when Athena, one of Lavinia’s friends, discovers that she is using Lavinia’s card. From then on, Athena frequently says she is short of cash and asks Louise for help. Fortunately, even after a long time, no one suspects what has happened to Lavinia. Louise also learns from Mimi that Mimi once caught Lavinia being anally penetrated by Hal. Later, when Mimi brought it up and tried to ask what was going on, Lavinia immediately told her, without even looking up, to move out.
Lavinia’s younger sister, Cordelia, returns from Paris and wants to see her sister. Louise says she went out earlier that day and has gone somewhere far away, and she does not know how long she will be out. Their grandmother’s antique suitcase has also been taken by Lavinia for her use. Rex comes over at her invitation. Cordelia assumes he has come to see her sister, and Louise begs Rex not to say anything. Rex leaves, confused. Afterwards, Louise explains that Cordelia still does not know that Lavinia knew the two of them had gotten together, much less that she had apparently given them her blessing.
She again replies to Cordelia on Facebook in Lavinia’s identity. Lavinia’s parents write to her, asking her to come home for Christmas and return to school promptly, otherwise they will stop supporting her financially. They also gently blame her for her absurd lifestyle and for ruining her sister’s promising future, suggesting that her sister’s refusal to come home for the holidays must also be because of Lavinia’s influence. Louise, writing as Lavinia, replies courteously that her novel is almost finished and that the road trip she is currently taking is extremely important for her physical and mental well-being, and so on.
Cordelia has nowhere to go for Christmas. Feeling sorry for her, Louise takes her to a party that she had arranged to attend with her boyfriend. After Cordelia talks to Hal, she thinks her sister would be hurt if she knew. Louise reassures her that she would not, speaking with great certainty. Cordelia asks why. Louise says it is because she and Hal have slept together. Before this can be confirmed, Rex punches Hal in the face, and the two begin grappling with each other.
Louise wants to patch things up with Rex. He seems indifferent, yet sends Lavinia a message saying that he has realized he still loves her. Lavinia does not reply. Rex seeks out Louise again, and the two sleep together, but at times he seems distracted. Only after Rex presses Lavinia, asking her at least to tell him whether he should wait for her, and gets the reply “don’t,” does he return enthusiastically to Louise. The two go to the New Year’s Eve countdown together, then return enthusiastically to Louise’s apartment. They take off their clothes before discovering Cordelia at home; she was unable to fly because of the snowstorm.
The two go to the beach. Rex says it would be very easy to explain everything to her and tells Louise simply to have Lavinia talk to her. At this point, Louise admits to him that Lavinia is dead and that she has been using Lavinia’s Facebook account to pretend she is still alive. Rex is horrified. It takes him several minutes to get out a single “fuck.” He manages to say that she can turn herself in and tell the police it was an accident, and so on. All Louise needs is for him to say that he understands, that it is okay, that he still loves her.
Louise walks into the sea. Rex tries to stop her, but she pulls him underwater instead. She repeatedly forces his head under the water. Even slightly drunk, he somehow cannot resist, and eventually stops moving. Lavinia’s phone rings; Mimi and Cordelia have been looking for her again and again. Louise’s own phone rings; the friend who recommended that she submit her work says that she has made the final five. Rex’s phone also rings; Hal wants to talk. Louise feels overwhelmed by the sheer nuisance of it all, and simply abandons Rex and his ringing phone on the beach. Cordelia posts a long message saying that she knows everyone will think she is crazy for saying this, but she still has to say that her sister is dead and that the killer is Louise. All her classmates come to offer their condolences and ask whether she is all right.
On the first day of the new year, Louise tells herself that this is the first day of the rest of her life. She goes into the bathroom and ignores the people knocking outside. She dyes her hair red and puts on her makeup, looking just like the woman in the fake passport. Changing identities and starting a new life has always been what she wanted most. She smashes Lavinia’s phone and throws it away. When she goes outside, with no phone and only a few dozen dollars in her pocket, she disappears into the crowd.
Review
After reading it, you may well have the feeling of “What the hell did I just read?”, but overall I still enjoyed it. Lavinia appears sunny and warm on the surface, practically a queen of the social scene, full of literary pretensions and posing as a talented young writer, yet she is intensely controlling and psychologically unstable. She treats her roommate like a pet, showing her displeasure at the slightest frustration and even ordering her to move out without looking up. She is self-centered, utterly self-indulgent, and has no interest in her studies. Yet what makes her attractive is precisely that fearlessness, that refusal to back down, and that carefree willingness to burn through life with relentless passion. Unfortunately, flashes of brilliance rarely last. She dies because of her own recklessness and absurdity.
The protagonist is not nearly so uninhibited. She is constantly struggling just to survive, always wanting to accomplish something, yet overwhelmed by life. She really is not that bad. You may hate Lavinia, but you will not hate Louise—at least not in the first half. She never bullies anyone. Apart from stealing a little money, she has done virtually nothing wrong. She even feels sorry for the subway creep Lavinia has punished on her behalf. She is also constantly convinced that she is inadequate in one way or another, that she is unworthy of this or that, when in fact she is considerably more talented than Lavinia. Even after accidentally killing someone, she considers turning herself in. Later she changes her mind, but it seems she has still done her best to face the difficult life ahead. Her greatest deficiency may indeed be that she is approaching thirty without having accomplished anything, and that she is ashamed to admit it, including her age, to the point that she constructs her life out of lies. But is having multiple jobs really an excuse? In this day and age, if you make good use of your commuting time, you could still write quite a lot. Once she has killed someone, naturally the lies only grow larger.
The circumstances surrounding the accidental killing are also worth examining. Louise was actually already prepared to accept that she would have to move out, and all along, what she had truly cared about most was rent and money. What really triggered the physical struggle was that Lavinia wanted to make everything public on Facebook and portray Louise as a disgraceful person. But Louise cannot even say exactly who she does not want to see it, because all those mutual friends at Lavinia’s parties are merely superficial acquaintances, and she has almost no emotional attachment to them. She only knows that she does not want “anyone” to see it. Perhaps this is the power of social media: a person’s digital image can come to matter more than the person’s actual circumstances.
Killing her boyfriend at the end is a major turning point, because it feels unlike her. But when you think about how she later covers up the murders, another motive emerges: she wants to beat Lavinia. Lavinia is dead, but she lives on inside Louise’s obsession with her, becoming her shadow as the person against whom she measures herself. Later, Louise becomes too clingy, and every time she makes a mistake, she explains and explains, while somehow constantly making the other person think of Lavinia. Finally, when Rex punches his best friend over the fact that Hal had been with Lavinia, he realizes that he still loves Lavinia. This time, Lavinia wins. Louise can neither accept that Lavinia has won nor accept that her boyfriend, after being rejected by Lavinia, can pretend nothing happened and simply go crawling back while still pretending to love her. And what is more, the person who has stolen the man she loves is dead. She becomes another Lavinia, only even more evil.
The novel reveals that she has always wanted to change identities and start a new life, showing that a crisis of self-confidence has been lurking in her heart all along. But reaching thirty without any savings is not without cause. No matter how many identities she changes, she is still herself. The characters all have impoverished inner worlds and are all surface without substance, making the read feel consistently lacking in depth and lacking a satisfying payoff. But perhaps that is precisely what the novel is actually conveying: its characters really are this shallow and superficial.
As for Louise being able to keep Lavinia alive on Facebook for nearly half a year, that is actually not especially surprising, although it certainly helps that she herself was Lavinia’s roommate and therefore able to manage it. Perhaps in the future people will communicate more through video and rely less on text messages. When that happens, it will be much harder to fake being someone else.
Finished reading on March 26, 2021
